Letter and numeral outliner.



S. HACKES.

LETTER AND NUMERAL OUTLINER.

APPLIUA'IION lILED IEB.12,1913.

Patented June 10, 1913.

3w amt r 35x3 GH'O'LM o I SIDNEY HACKES, OF MOUNT VERNON, NEW YORK.

LETTER AND NUMEBAL QUTLINER.

"1 Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J one 10, 1913.

Application filed February 12, 1913. Serial No. 747,881.

The invention relates to drawing instrumonts or devices and its mainobject is .to provide a letter and numeral outliner of very simpleconstruction, which may be easily manipulated for conveniently andquickly forming letters of the alphabet and numerals.

A further object .of the invention is to so construct the device that itmay be readily and quickly manipulated by an unskilled person, themethod of manipulation and the various positionsof the rule or .drawingdevice being almost obvious from its construction.

The advantage of providing a rule or drawing instrument of simpleconstruction which will enable an unskilled .person to quickly andproperly form letters and numerals, isobv-ious. It was primarily devisedfor the use of storekeepers and clerks, to enable .them to make lettersfor show-cards or signs.

The device may be made in various sizes and .may be used by signpainters and letterers .of varying ordinary skill, it being practicallyimpossible to improperly shape the letters and numerals and practicallyimpossible to fail to make them of the right sizes and proportions.

There are other important.objocts and advantages of :the invention whichwill appear hereinafter.

InIthe drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective .viewiof ,the outliner; Fig.2 a face view .of the device in a slightly different form from thatshown in F 1g. 1; Fig. 3 a diagram being closed by horizontal members 2and 3. The left-hand arm 4 .of the letter H is prolonged ,or extendedbelow the horizontal member 3 to form the extension member 5 so that.the left-hand edge of the ,arm 4 and of said extension providesa longruling edge useful in forming such letters as A, and W, as will be morefully hereinafter described. The arms of the letter H and the endmembers thereof are of he same width, as ,is also ,the extension member5. The curved member forming the loop of the letter P is also .of thesame widtn asflthe members of the letter H; and the loop itself in itsvertical dimension is equal to the upper half of the letter H. This loopmember is useful in forming the loops of .the letter B; the upper loopof the letter R and is used in the formation of all curved lines ofletters and numerals.

The upright member or arm 1 forms the upnight member of all loo letters.

The outliner ,is prefera ly formed of .thin transparent material such,as celluloid .or the like when it is .adapted for use in making small1etters,-th at is to say, lettersof an inch ,or two 'in height, but, ofcourse, it may be made .of any suitable thin material. To offset the,outliner gfrom the surface on which the marking is to be made 1 providesmall studs6. These studs may be formed integral with the outliner orthey may be small ,pieces of rubber or the like attached thereto. Byproviding .this means of offsetting ,the outliner the letters andnumerals may be outlined by .meansof a drawing pen without any danger ofblurring the ink marks. On the larger size devices, from twelve inchesupward the ofisets will vary in height from one quarter of an inch toone inch. This will ,permit a skilled operator to directly use a paintgbrush ,to cut or block out letters without any preliminary marking andprevents smudging of the edge .lines. In order that the letters shall beof uniform size the openings between the ,arms of the letter ,lH are ofthe same size and the opening within the loopmember is of the sameheightasthe qpeningmetween the armsqf the letter H, said openings .being also.of equal width in their greatest dimension ghorizontally. To facilitatethe manipulation of the outliner the upper edge of the member 2 isprovided-with gagemarks as shown and the middle of the arm 2 .isindicated by the gage mark lettered A. For the purposeof lndieating theuse and various positions of the outliner the various members arelettered as shown a, b, c, d, f, h and k. Of course, 1t

will be understood that any designating characters may be used whichwould be convenient in writing a description of the method of using thedevice.

In Fig. 2 is shown a slightly different form of the device, the loopmember 7 being extended downwardly from the arm 1 of the letter H andconnected to the horizontal member 3. It is to be noted that. this formof the device consists of the letter H with the openin s between theends of the arms closed by horizontal members, and a loop member, saidloop .member being adapted to be used for forming loop letters and allcurved lines. In this form of the device it is also to be noted that theextension member 5 may be dispensed with, the extension of the arm 1giving a long straight edge and serving the same purpose as the saidextension 5.

In Fig. 3 is shown a diagram illustrating one method of forming theletter B. In forming this letter it is first desirable to form theoutlines of the letter H, completing the left-hand edge of the left-handarm. The position of the outliner for this purpose is shown by thedotted lines a. The outliner is then moved to the left to the positionshown by the dotted lines 6 to form the upper loop of the letter B. Itis then moved downwardly to the position shown by the dotted lines 0 toform the lower loop. The letter B is shown in full lines in Fig. 3 andthe various positions of the outliner are shown by the dotted lines ofdifferent character. Of course, the user of the device may manipulate itin any way desired to secure the outlines of the various letters and themethod just described is merely used for the purposes of illustration.The letter B may also be formed by first drawing the letter P and thendropping the outliner down so as to use the loop portion for forming thelower loop of the letter B. It is obvious that the letter T may beformed by various methods of using the outliner.

In Fig. 4 is shown the method of outlining the main lines of the letterH The inner edges of the upright members near the upper and lower endsthereof may be readily completed in any desired manner by shifting theoutliner and using it as a rule.

In forming the letter S it is desirable to first make the outlines ofthe letter II so that the letter S will be properly placed and to givethe lateral and vertical dimensions of the loops. The outliner is thenplaced in the various positions indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 5.The

dotted lines 45 indicate the position of the outliner when forming theletter II as the basis for the final letter S. After forming thisfoundation or base the outliner is shifted to the position shown bydotted lines 6 which enables the operator to form indicating the end ofthe portion 10 of theletter S To complete the letter the outliner isplaced in theposition indicated by the dottedlines 72., this lastposition enabling the operator to make the portion 11 and to therebycomplete the letter. These few diagrams are merely given by way ofillustrating the use of the device andit will be obvious -to any onethat the other letters of the alphabet may be similarly made by properlymanipulating the outliner.

In forming letters such as A, V and W the long edge formed by theextension member 5 enables the operator to draw the lines on the properangle. Without this extension the upright member would be too short andthe unskilled operator would be inconvenienced in drawing the saidinclined lines accurately. w

It is manifest from the foregoing that some of the letters of thealphabet can be practically completely outlined with the device in oneposition, such letters being I, t H 77, U 77, l J 77, C E 77, L77 C. P.Other letters require the device to be shifted into two or morepositions. It is obvious that this device assures uniformity of heightand width of letters and exact duplication thereof, and the same is trueas to numerals. The device may be made in very large sizes for the useof sign painters in marking out letters on walls, fences and the like,thereby effecting a great saving of time and enabling comparativelyunskilled workmen to produce very satisfactory and uniform results.

Usually in sign writing and in lettering the painter first draws theupper and lower guide lines for the letters. In. the use of the devicedescribed herein it is found desirable to draw said guide lines as itmate r-ially facilitates the manipulation of the outliner.

What I claim is: 4

1. An alphabet outliner" substantially in the form of the letter Hwithzthe spaces between the ends of the arms-thereof closed byhorizontal members and with a loop member connected thereto.

2. An alphabet outliner substantially in the form of the letter H withthe spaces between the ends of the arms thereof closed by horizontalmembers and with a loop member connected thereto, said loop memberextending outwardly from the righthand vertical arm of the H member.

3. An alphabet outliner substantially in the form of the letter H withthe spaces between the ends of the arms thereof 0 osed by horizontalmembers and with a loop member connected thereto, said loop memberextending horizontally from the upper portion of the right-hand arm ofthe H member.

4. An a1 habet outliner substantially in the form 0 the letter H withthe spaces between the ends of the arms thereof closed by horizontalmembers and with a loop member connected thereto all of the arms of saidmembers being of uniform width.

5. An al habet outliner substantially in the form 0 the letter H withthe s aces between the ends of the arms thereof 0 osed by horizontalmembers and with a loop member connected thereto, all of the arms ofsaid members being of uniform width, the horizontal and verticaldimensions of the openings in the loop member and in the H member beingual.

6. An alphabet outlmer substantially in the form of the letter H withthe s aces between the ends of the arms thereof 0 osed by horizontalmembers and with a 100 member connected thereto, one of the vertlcalmembers of the H member being prolonged to form an extension member.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my signature in the presence oftwo witnesses.

- SIDNEY HAOKES.

Witnesses:

LILLLAN MCGUIRE, F. R. MILLER.

